Maidenhead woman ‘catapulted’ from bed during sex loses damages claim

A woman left paralysed after being “catapulted” from her new bed during sex has lost her damages claim against the supplier.

Claire Busby, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, suffered a serious injury to her spine when she fell from the super king size double divan as she changed position.

The 46-year-old claimed the bed was in a “defective state” at the time of her accident and sued Berkshire Bed Company, trading as Beds Are Uzzz, which supplied it.

But, rejecting her case, Judge Barry Cotter found the bed was “not defective”, even taking into account “reasonably foreseeable misuse”.

He said: “It required a most unfortunate and unusual combination of positioning on the bed and movement which I do not believe would have been foreseeable by any reasonable person prior to the incident.”

The judge added: “As a result of the matters set out above, the claim in relation to this tragic accident – which is what I find it was, a simple accident – fails.”

During the trial, the court heard that the bed was one of five delivered to Ms Busby’s then home, Rosewood House in Ockwells Road, Maidenhead, in August 2013 when she was renovating the property.

Ms Busby was injured a week after the bed’s delivery while having sex with her then partner, John Marshall.

She told the court she was kneeling in the middle of the bed when she decided to move position and “swung her legs” from underneath her, before lying back on the bed with her head towards the bottom end.

At that point she claimed the bed gave way and she fell off the end, landing on her head.

During the trial, Ms Busby told the court: “I spun around, I put my hand down and then I felt like I was catapulted off the back of the bed.

“My head hit the floor, I fell to the side and then I heard like a spring in my body snap, it felt like.”

Following the High Court judgment, Richard Manders, director of Berkshire Bed Company, said: “We are delighted the court has ruled in our favour.

“We are sorry that Ms Busby was injured and we wish her and her family well for the future.”